Russian journalist Andrey Stenin, missing in eastern Ukraine for a month, has been confirmed dead, RIA Novosti, the news agency where he worked, reports. He was in a vehicle traveling in a convoy of escaping civilians when it came under heavy fire.

Stenin apparently died in a vehicle, on his way to an assignment,
according to the agency’s director, Dmitriy Kisilev.

“The car had been shot up and burnt on a highway in the
vicinity of Donetsk,” he said in a statement. “The
autopsy results came back this morning. He was indeed in that car
– the 33-year-old young man, a brilliant professional, someone
who cared.”

Russia's Investigative Committee has determined that the car had
come under fire as a Ukrainian attack on the self-defense forces
was taking place. The car had been travelling in a convoy,
together with those escaping the conflict. It was guarded by six
members of the self-defense forces.

The unit that carried out the attack was also using a tank,
according to the investigators.

More than 10 cars containing peaceful civilians had been shot up.
The contents of the vehicles, including the civilians'
belongings, had come into Ukrainian posession.

The following day Ukrainian commanders arrived at the scene.
According to Vladimir Markin of the Investigative Committee and
testimony gathered from bystanders, "they weren't only
inspecting the wreckages and identifying bodies, but were also
loading the contents of the vehicles into their own and searching
the remains," he said.

"After the commanders had left the scene, it was fired on
with Grad missiles," he added.

"The investigation will not stop at determining the exact
details of the shooting. It also aims to find those responsible
and bring them to justice."

Moscow has asked that Kiev carry out the same "impartial and
thorough investigation."

It was only on August 27 that Russian authorities had been given
the remains of the five persons who were in the car with Stenin
at the time of the attack. "Russian experts studied the
remains, which contained those of Stenin as well," Markin
told journalists.

Kisilev also said that mediators on the Ukrainian side were
earlier offering to negotiate Stenin's release - possibly an
exchange - in this way giving credence to the view that he may be
alive.

Stenin, 33, a photojournalist contributing to several leading
Russian and international news agencies including AP, Reuters,
AFP, Rossiya Segodnya (RIA Novosti) and ITAR-TASS, had been
covering the conflict in eastern Ukraine before all contact with
him was lost on August 5.

In mid-August, Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian
interior minister, said that Stenin had been arrested by the
Ukrainian Security Service for “aiding and glorifying
terrorism.” He later backtracked on the statement.

Stenin’s disappearance prompted rallies in his support all over
the world, as well as an online campaign #FreeAndrew.

Stenin was an experienced war photographer. The work he did in
Ukraine included pictures of Ukrainian troops captured by
self-defense forces, the horrific results of Ukrainian artillery
shelling of militia-held cities and the crash site of the MH17
plane that was downed over the Donetsk region in July.

Ever since Stenin went missing, Moscow has been putting a great
deal of pressure on Kiev, calling on the Ukrainian authorities to
assist in finding and rescuing the journalist.

Russia’s Investigative Committee launched a criminal case over
what was regarded as a possible kidnapping.

All major international human rights watchdogs - Human Rights
Watch, Amnesty International and the International Federation of
Journalists – have called for an urgent investigation into
Stenin’s disappearance.

"Andrey's funeral will take place on Friday at the
Troyekurovskoe cemetary in Moscow. He will be buried next to
journalists Igor Kornelyuk, Anton Voloshin and Anatoly Klyan,
who, like Andrey, were killed in Ukraine," the director
added in his statement.

The Ukrainian interior ministry said it is ready to investigate
the death of Stenin after Moscow’s demand for a probe. But it
would be difficult as the area where the journalist was killed is
not controlled by Ukrainian troops.

“Without access to the body, without knowing how he was
killed, we won’t be able to conduct such an investigation,”
Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the head of Ukraine’s interior
ministry, told Ukrainian TV.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had hoped until the last
minute that Stenin was alive and would return home to his
relatives.

“We hoped that Andrey [Stenin] would return to his family and
friends but bitter news dashed all these hopes. He performed his
professional and human duty to the last. [He] did everything so
that people, the whole world learnt the truth about the tragic
events that are happening in Donetsk,” said Putin’s
statement on the Kremlin website.

Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev also expressed his condolences.

“It’s a terrible sorrow when the life of a young, talented
man who is full of energy is taken in war. A war in which his
only shots were photos! He wanted to bring us photos documenting
the atrocities and injustice,” he wrote on his Facebook
page.

“Maybe it’s the highest manifestation of love for people – to
come under fire in order to show that there should be no
wars,” he added.

The OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe)
has called on Kiev to investigate the circumstances of Stenin’s
death, the body said in a statement.

I urge Kiev authorities to investigate all cases of killing of
media workers, do it quickly and thoroughly, said a statement
from Dunya Miyatovich, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the
Media, which observes media developments.